On Frankfurt, lodging and gaming consoles.

Did you know that Frankfurt airport has oversized telephone booths for people to smoke indoors? They look like fish tanks, the people standing in there vacantly looking out while they smoke their cigarette because what else can you do in there?

That was a rhetorical question, so no lewd suggestions in the comments, please.

Anyway, the smoking booths are my most striking memory from the flight, followed by the sheer number of airplanes flying into Frankfurt. I don't think I've ever flown as closely to another flying airplane as I did on Saturday. After landing, as the plane turned to park, the lights from at least six other planes as they started their landing approach could be seen.

The rest of the trip to Heidelberg, in a brand new Mercedes with a driver, was unremarkable. Upon arrival, I met the apartment where I'll live for the next three months. The good new: it's a duplex. The bad news: it's a small duplex. Still, me and my roommate have already found the other students who are staying in a big apartment in the guest house, so we already know where the parties will take place. The stove is going to be hard to get used to. It's a crappy electric thingy with two heaters so close that if I want to use the frying pan, it takes all the space. At the moment my first experiment with it and rice is underway.

Speaking of parties, social events where the reason I haven't written a proper blog post yet and why you get this condensed version of the last five days instead of individual funny stories written with time to spare. It's just hard to sit down to write them after arriving from the course and grocery shopping when I only have one hour to cook and go downtown for drinks.

The course started on Monday and so far has only been basic biology for non-biologists and basic computational stuff for biologists. The most fun has been the gymkhana that the administration section has prepared for us, where we have to chase signatures from a dozen different rooms in the various buildings. I have no shame to say that I eventually I got lost. Yet I can hold no grudge against the institute: this place rents Nintendo Wiis and Playsations 3 to any member of the staff! How cool is that?